All's Fair In Love and War
by Land of The Delta Blues
Summary: <html><head></head>Al Stram is back, with a vengence.</html>
1. Chapter 1

**Plotline: **What if Fitch didn't kill Stram that afternoon in Canada, however he was unaware of his archnemisis' survival and a year and a half later, with a new family he has let his guard down. However this will prove a mistake when Stram returns to Detroit. Fitch/Sanchez pairing of course.

**Inspiration: **I read a fan speculation on the ABC website that maybe Stram didn't die, I actually kind of like the idea.

**Warning: **Violence, maybe some language.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Detroit 187, which I believe I have said many times before.

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><p>For Louis Fitch, life had been beyond perfect within the past few months especially. That night after he killed Stram, when he'd asked his coworker on a date he'd never imagined how quickly their relationship would go. Within a couple of months, they'd been living together, and within six months of that day they'd been married. Then, as if by miracle, one week after the wedding, she'd took a pregnancy test and it tested positive.<p>

Now their daughter, Ella Marie Fitch, was three months old. Tonight he'd found himself unable to sleep and had ended up in the nursery just watching her.

He didn't hear Ariana's footsteps until she was right behind him.

"I was looking for you." she chuckled, wrapping her arms around his waist from behind.

He turned around to face her, "I was having trouble sleeping again."

She reached up to kiss him quickly, "I think I might have something for that."

xxx

Meanwhile, not two blocks away, an old "friend of the family" had set up headquarters.

Albert Stram wasn't too fond of the middle class neighborhood he'd been forced to set up in, but it paid to be close to your target. Especially when the said target was under the impression you were dead and would have his guard down.

He had been shocked to find his old enemy married. It was the same Latina from the diner over a year ago, Stram had noticed. He still had a copy of that photo as a reminder that both Louis Fitch and his bride would be dead, preferrably by Christmas, which left him only two weeks to complete his mission.

* * *

><p>So what do you think? Continue?<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

It was around seven in the morning, and the house was chaos, both parents were a bit grumpy and Ella was crying to add to the mess.

"She has a fever." Ariana sat the baby thermometer down "I'll call in a personal day and stay with her."

"Are you sure?"

She offered a small smile "Aren't mothers supposed to nurture sick children?"

After a few minutes Louis gave in, "You're right, I guess I'll see both of you at lunch." he got up and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, and Ella one on the forehead.

Ariana watched him pull out of the driveway before her attention focused on a car in the neighbor's driveway, her neighbor Ms. Anderson had obviously gotten her weekly visit from her daughter.

Three hours later, Ariana had finally gotten Ella asleep, so she decided to turn on the TV. There was a live press conference this morning, technically the Lieutenant had wanted her to be at it, but some things couldn't be helped. Still she knew Louis would be there and most morning talk shows were always dull.

She left the TV on as she went into the kitchen to prepare lunch, she could hear Louis releasing details of their current case when she heard the door open.

"Who's there?" she turned around quickly remembering her gun was in a drawer in the bedroom, upstairs. She grabbed the knife she'd been cutting the vegetables with, hoping it was someone like her mother who didn't believe in knocking. It wasn't.

A tall man with grey hair and a mustache entered the room. It was Albert Stram, but he was dead wasn't he? Louis had confessed early in their relationship that he'd killed Stram in Canada, or so he thought he had apparently.

"You're even lovelier in the flesh I can see why Lou married you. Not a lick of common sense though dear, never bring a knife to a gunfight." Stram began.

"What are you doing here?" she tried to look for an escape route, there was none.

"Just providing Lou with a little warning." before she could react he whipped out his gun and fired two bullets into her torso.

Stram took one last look at the still breathing figure on the floor with a smile before leaving.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

A few minutes after Al Stram left the Fitch household, eighteen year old Katie Moreland pulled into her grandmother's driveway across the street. Her mother had taken her grandmother shopping earlier that day but had promised to be back by ten, it was ten-thirty and Anna Moreland was never late. Katie noticed the car was still in her grandmother's driveway. _"Grandma probably started talking about her cats." _Katie thought. She almost left, but then she remembered how much grandma had wanted her to visit.

With a sigh she got out of her car cursing the cold and began to walk up her grandmother's driveway. When she opened the door, the bodies of her mother and grandmother were the first thing she noticed. She didn't know it at the time, but Al Stram had spent the morning spying on the neighbors, using her grandmother's house as a vantage point.

In a panic she raced outside, "Think! Think! What to do? Didn't grandmother say a couple of cops lived across the street?"

The road was empty when she raced across it without looking both ways. Seeing a light on she began pounding on the door, "C'mon, open up! My mother and grandmother have been murdered! I need help!" maybe the home's occupants were asleep. Desperately she tried the door and found it unlocked. She knew breaking and entering was completely frowned upon, especially with a cop's house, but at the moment she could care less.

As soon as the door opened her ears were assaulted by the sounds of a crying baby and a press conference on TV. "Hello! Anybody home?"

A sound like someone trying to speak came from the kitchen. Without thinking Katie raced towards it. The woman was sprawled in a growing puddle of blood barely conscious. When Katie saw the knife she first thought the woman had attempted suicide, but the blood was puddled under the blade and not on it.

She looked for the phone quickly finding it on the wall nearby, she began to dial 911 "Hello, I'm at 110 Sheridan Street, a there is a woman with what appears to be gun or knife wounds in the kitchen of the residence and there are two more women dead across the street at house number 108."

After she had finished with the phone call, Katie walked over to the woman, she was still semi alert and her eyes followed Katie's every move, analyzing her like, well she was an intruder. There were two wounds, one in her chest area and one in the stomach area. Katie tried to staunch them with a cloth, wishing she'd paid more attention in health class.

"Who did this to you?" Katie asked not really expecting an answer.

The response was barely understandable, and it sounded like the woman said Strom, this at the time meant nothing to Katie.

The woman began to close her eyes just as the ambulance pulled into the driveway. The two police cars parked across the street.

xxx

Fitch practically jumped out of the passenger seat before Washington even had the SUV stopped and before Washington and Mason could even get out, he was across the street.

"How is my wife?" he asked the EMTs frantically, noticing that Ariana seemed a little more alert when he showed up.

The younger of the two kind of gave him a funny look, that showed if this weren't a critical situation he'd be questioning the age difference, the older EMT was more helpful.

"She might need a blood transfusion, but thankfully her injuries don't seem life threatening otherwise."

Fitch breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Can I ride with her to the hospital?" he started to ask before remembering his daughter upstairs.

His panic was short lived however, when Mason came up behind him, "I'll check on Ella, you go with her to the hospital."

"Thank you." he whispered softly.

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><p>Next chapter he finds out that Stram is to blame.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

If you're wondering how to picture Ariana's partner, I pretty much modeled him after David Borenaz's Agent Seeley Booth on the TV series Bones.

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><p>Mason opened the front door and walked into the front hall of the house. She'd never actually been inside the Fitch household before, so she took a few seconds to take in the layout. Not surprisingly the walls we almost free of photos and paintings, in fact the only thing on the walls was a crucifix with dead palm leaves hung above a small table. There were only two photographs. One was of the family here in Detroit, Louis, Ariana and Ella. The other was of Bobby Fitch and a large German Shepard. She didn't take long to look at the photos though, remembering the real reason she'd came inside. On her way to the stairs unfortunately she had to pass the kitchen, the amount of blood in the puddle worried her. It had been over a year since they'd lost Ariana's partner John in the same way and she wasn't eager to repeat the event.<p>

Carefully she made her way upstairs, Ella was no longer crying so, not knowing the layout, she was a bit lost. She tried the first door, a bathroom, likely the master bath. The next door proved to be the master bedroom. The third door was the nursery which much to her surprise had a fairytale theme with pink walls. Ella was asleep in her crib, perfectly fine.

Mason breathed a sigh of relief, she'd expected the very worst. With that she went downstairs to wait for the other detectives to come in.

Twenty minutes later, Ariana's current partner, Jacob Holland, a tall, lean muscular man with dark hair and dark eyes came over with Washington and the girl who had discovered the bodies.

"We're going to take Katie here back to the station for questioning." Holland said.

"Take Longford instead of Washington," Mason instructed, "I need Washington on babysitting duty."

"What?" Washington kind of yelled and despite the grim situation and him being a highly trained professional Holland couldn't help but chuckle.

"You have a one year old son," the Lieutenant continued and you're Ella's godfather..."

"Alright," Washington finally agreed.

However, as soon as Mason left to get Longford, the mood returned to grim.

"There's a lot of blood..." Holland said grimly.

"Yeah, but she's tough..." Washington added.

Both tried to keep an eye on Katie who was now taking in the scenery, except for the puddle.

"Yeah, she's tough."

"Ahem...umm, I don't know if it's important but..." both men turned to Katie.

"What is it?" Holland asked.

"When I asked her who had hurt her, she said something about somebody named Strum or Strom."

"Stram?" Washington asked feeling any hope he'd had drain from his body.

"Yeah, I that could have been it."

"But...isn't he dead?" Holland asked.

"Change of plans, Longford will go to the hospital to warn Fitch, I'll take the girl back to the station, and Holland will help Mahajan at the murder scene." Mason had returned by now and began barking orders.

xxx

By the time Longford arrived, the waiting room was crowded with Ariana's family, and Fitch was pacing.

"Can I talk to you?" Longford asked.

"Not in here."

The two men walked towards the cafeteria.

"How is she hanging on?" Longford asked.

"They're giving her a blood transfusion right now." his tone betrayed how worried he was, and for once he didn't care.

"She's one of the strongest women I know." Longford tried to comfort, however, he couldn't quite escape the inevitable, "There's been a new development in the case. Apparently, Ariana identified her shooter."

"Of course she would, in case she..." he couldn't continue, and Longford hated having to say what he said next.

"It was Albert Stram."

"He's alive."

"We'll make sure he goes to prison this time."

"No, only death can destroy the evil in that man." Fitch's eyes were cold with hate.

Longford chose that moment to state a proverb. "Non affoga colui che cade in acqua - ma affoga chi male incappa."

Fitch gave him a questioning stare.

"Who falls in water doesn't drown - but who falls badly will."

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><p>Not sure about the proverb, but I'm thinking maybe he understood Fitch's intentions and is warning him to be careful and not fall badly.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

It had been a week and a half since the shooting. Stram hadn't struck again yet, but this did nothing to soothe Louis Fitch. He knew that the monster had barely been set back and was plotting something, that he would likely carry out soon. Fitch was plotting too. His original plan had been to send his family somewhere they'd be safe and face Stram himself. Ella was now safe with her grandparents, but that wads all the further that plan had wounded, Ariana was a strong and she had immediately figured out his plan. They had fought briefly about it, but in the end she had made it clear that she refused to stand back and let Louis put himself in danger alone.

It had been a week and a half since the shooting. Stram hadn't struck again yet, but this did nothing to soothe Louis Fitch. He knew that the monster had barely been set back and was plotting something, that he would likely carry out soon. Fitch was plotting too. His original plan had been to send his family somewhere they'd be safe and face Stram himself. Ella was now safe with her grandparents, but that was all the further that plan had went.

Louis checked the clock, it was still early but he felt nervous leaving his wife alone upstairs. With a sigh he put his gun on safety and headed upstairs. Slowly he opened the bedroom door, hoping not to wake her, with her injuries she needed all the rest she could get.

However, she'd been sleeping practically with one eye open. Now upon hearing footsteps she sat upright in bed, eyes wide, nostrils flared in an expression of pure terror.

"Shh, it's only me." he soothed carefully pulling her closer to him.

The couple laid in bed, both apparently comfortable, but both alert to every sound going on in the house. Finally, despite both of their efforts to remain awake, they both fell asleep.

The morning dawned deceivingly beautiful. Tiny white snowflakes danced in the air, it would make for a beautiful white Christmas. However, as he made breakfast Louis was sure the holiday, now mere days away would be honored with a bloodbath. Hopefully Stram's blood, not that of himself or a loved one, would color the fresh snow, but nothing was certain. His right hand came to rest on the butt of the pistol in the waistband of his jeans.

Carefully he tried to lift the two plates to carry them back upstairs without spilling anything.

"Hey, you want me to help carry something, or are we not actually going to eat breakfast." Ariana's voice made him jump a little, but he handed her one of the plates

The couple chose the couch instead after the meal was finished, Louis immediately did the dishes before returning to the couch where his wife was stretched out comfortably over the whole couch.

"Sorry" she blushed beginning to sit up.

"No, it's fine." he sat down in the space where her head had been, and she replaced it on his lap. Idly he began to stroke her hair.

The couple was silent for several minutes before Ariana spoke, "Are you scared?"

She could immediately feel his muscles tense at her question, the affectionate hair stroking ended abruptly, his hand forming a tight fist instead, with a few strands of hair still clutched in his grip. For a moment she wondered if she was in danger. He would never intentionally hurt her, but she knew that he was stronger than many larger men. However, as soon as the thought entered her head, his hand went limp.

Then in a voice so small and weak that she barely recognized, he confided "I'm terrified."

He carefully examined her face, as if looking for signs that she thought less of him after his admission. Instead he was met with eyes brimming with warmth.

She sat up, straddling his lap, hands gently cupping either side of his face, forcing him to continue making eye contact. "You're not in this alone Louis. I know you want to protect me and Ella and you think that with my recent injuries I need to take it easy. I respect that, but Stram didn't defeat me then and I refuse to let him ever defeat me. Let me help you. You're strong, but you shouldn't do this alone. Please." she begged.

Neither of them continued as at that moment there was the sound of a key in the lock.


	6. Chapter 6

"I am seriously scarred for life now. I mean I knew that you two had a healthy sex life but..." Holland didn't finish his sentence. The couple had already righted themselves into a less awkward looking position.

"This is our house," Ariana pointed out.

"The door was locked," Louis added, he'd made sure it was locked the previous night. Keeping his family safe was his main priority.

"You left a spare key in your desk." Holland held up the key from Louis's desk fo both of them to see.

"You went through my desk?" a slight bit of anger was in his tone.

Trying to keep the situation from getting too awkward, Ariana stepped in between the two men, snatching the house key from her partner's hand. "Do you actually have a reason for breaking into our house?"

"Yeah, while you two were here doing I don't need to know what, we discovered Stram's hideout." Holland held up the file as if he was trying to taunt his partner into snatching that too.

Instead, she asked in a tone laced with both sudden fascination and the already present annoyance, "Where was he?"

"We haven't actually found him yet, but the hideout is a couple of blocks from here. I think you both need to see what we found tacked to a bulletin board in the kitchen area." This time he handed the file to his partner. "Do you have any coffee, the break room stuff was nasty this morning." he made a face as he followed the couple to the dining room.

"I think there's a little left in the pot, I'll get you a cup." Ariana began.

However before she could move, Louis had already went to get the coffee.

She turned to her partner, "He won't let me in the kitchen."

"Because you're a terrible cook?"

"What? No, well maybe... but it's because that's the room I was in when Stram attacked me."

"Ahh, smart move. So, this was found on Stram's bulletin board, any idea when it was taken?"

Louis returned with the coffee and sat it down before taking his own seat next to his wife. "That's from the diner, about a year and a half ago."

"Wasn't that the night that Bobby invited me without telling you?" Ariana immediately recognized the photo too. "Was he outside the diner?"

"Yeah, he used the photo before to taunt me, when he was after Bobby."

"We also found these journals, he spent hours documenting your comings and goings apparently within the last four months. There was one point where he apparently was going to break into the house and shoot Ariana in the sleep while..."

A stern look from Louis shut him up. "Maybe we can figure out some way to use his obsessive nature to our advantage."

* * *

><p>I hope the show gets renewed for a second season :'( but unfortunately it doesn't look good.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

"This better work. I want to capture this bastard almost as much as you two do." Holland sighed.

Louis decided not to correct him by saying Stram would never make it into police custody.

With dramatic flourish Holland got up and sat his coffee cup down. He walked to the door, throwing it open with a yell, "You're both insane! I don't know who shot you, but it wasn't Stram, it was probably some stoned gangster! Stram is dead! I'm telling Mason to remove the police cars that have been patrolling the neighborhood! Honestly all you're doing is wasting the squad's time! I don't know if I want to see either of you back at work!"

Ariana closed the door leaning against it with a sigh. All the confidence she'd had before was gone. "Stram tried to...he wanted to shoot me when I was sleeping."

"You're safe now, he can't hurt you anymore. We're in this together." he pulled her close to him gently. "I won't let him hurt you..." softly he added, "even if it costs me my own life."

Her head snapped up from where her face had been nuzzled protectively in the crook of his neck, "I refuse to let him take you from me." Her eyes were wild with worry and fear and he realized his attempt to show how devoted he was to catching Stram had only made things worse.

He wasn't sure what to say to console her, comfort had never been his strong suit and now things were worse. He couldn't even be sure that Stram wouldn't end his life, and he didn't feel that lying was right just to make her feel better. "I will fight as hard as I can to bring him down."

"Just don't die on me okay, I don't want to bury the only man I ever loved."

Her face was back in the crook of his neck so she couldn't see his shocked and pleased expression, although she could feel the lump form in his throat. "I love you too." he whispered softly, kissing her hair.

She whimpered and nuzzled his neck again and in response he picked her up gently and carried her upstairs. He laid her down on the bed and began to smooth her hair "Honey, you just need to rest. I'll be downstairs."

"NO! I don't need to rest, I just need you."

"Is that really a good idea with your injuries?" he was trying to be rational, but deep down he knew needed her too.

"Please, I'll let you know if it hurts too much." she put on her pleading face.

"Alright," he walked over to the bedroom door and shut it.


	8. Chapter 8

Ariana awoke to find Louis watching her sleepily. "See, you didn't hurt me." she smiled at him.

He responded with a small smile of his own. He tried to form some sort of compliment, but his thinking was cut off by a crash downstairs.

"Is that what I think it is?" Ariana asked.

Louis however was already out of bed putting on a pair of pants and looking for his pistol. "Stay," he instructed, wanting to keep her out of harm.

"Not going to happen," she grabbed his tee-shirt off of the floor and quickly found her own weapon in the drawer of the bedside table.

"Fine," he didn't have time to argue, he could hear footsteps on the stairs now. Catiously he cracked the door after noting that she was in position.

Stram noticed them, well with the hallway's layout a surprise attack upstairs was pretty much impossible. With a laugh he took in their clothing, "Hope I didn't interrupt a good f*ck."

"Get out of my house." Louis wasn't about to be as calm as he had been last time and the command came out in a almost animal like snarl.

"What, and let you two live? What kind of mobster would that make me. I'm not going to let you shoot me again, and I doubt she's a good shot." Coolly he reached into his pocket for his own weapon not breaking eye contact with his nemisis.

Suddenly a bullet ripped right through his skull, sending him tumbling down the stairs, "I'm an excellent shot." Ariana snapped the safety back on the gun shuddering slightly at the sound of a human body falling down the stairs. Fairly certain that Stram was dead she held back when Louis walked to the stairs to check.

"You okay?" she hadn't noticed him returning to hug her.

"Our family is safe." it wasn't quite an answer to his question, but he understood her completely. "I guess we need to call the Lieutenant."

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><p>Short I know, but if a mobster was in your with intent to kill you house how long would you let him live?<p> 


End file.
